Sacrificial Magic (Downside Ghosts, #4) (Chess Putnam, #4)

by Stacia Kane

READING, WRITING, AND RAISING THE DEAD
 
When Chess Putnam is ordered by an infamous crime boss—who also happens to be her drug dealer—to use her powers as a witch to solve a grisly murder involving dark magic, she knows she must rise to the challenge. Adding to the intensity: Chess’s boyfriend, Terrible, doesn’t trust her, and Lex, the son of a rival crime lord, is trying to reignite the sparks between him and Chess.

Plus there’s the little matter of Chess’s real job as a ghost hunter for the Church of Real Truth, investigating reports of a haunting at a school in the heart of Downside. Someone seems to be taking a crash course in summoning the dead—and if Chess doesn’t watch her back, she may soon be joining their ranks. 

As Chess is drawn into a shadowy world of twisted secrets and dark violence, it soon becomes clear that she’s not going to emerge from its depths without making the ultimate sacrifice.

• ISBN10: 1299082106
• ISBN13: 9781299082106
• Publish Date: 1 January 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 12 May 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Del Rey Books
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[Berls]

My Initial Reaction...

This series just keeps getting better and better! What can I say about Sacrificial Magic? Talk about emotional torture of the best kind! Not to mention the amazballs action you always get from Stacia Kane!

Note: Expect series spoilers!

The Narration...

Bahni Turpin is the perfect fit for this series. She's made the Downside world so incredibly real for me and I can't imagine reading these books without her. I have a few favorite narrators and I can't imagine even one of them doing this series. She's made each character have such an amazingly strong and unique voice, not to mention made the unique Downside language the Stacia created work for me. I definitely recommend listening to this series.

The Characters...

OMG, Chess has officially broken my heart with Sacrificial Magic. We've known for a while that she's running from a horrible past by using her drugs and every bit that I see of that past breaks my heart. But in Sacrificial Magic we see her vulnerability like never before. She and Terrible are really trying this relationship thing and she just doesn't know how to do it. How to feel for someone. But she wants to. So she's trying so hard. She's trying to be honest with Terrible, even when it scares her. And it scares her so much because she doesn't believe she's worth loving. You've always known she didn't think much of herself, but she broke my heart over and over as how little she thinks of herself came through. But she grew hard core in Sacrificial Magic and I can't wait to see what she'll do next.

And then there's Terrible. Gah this man is so beautiful despite being physically so ugly. I think it's such a brilliant juxtaposition that Stacia created in him. He's your noble gangster, with feelings and intelligence and heart, despite what it might seem. And he doesn't really know how to do this relationship thing either, but he knows how to care about Chess, if she'll let him and trust him. Every time he called her "Chessiebomb" I think I wanted to melt a little, because it's such a horrible endearment and yet it works so well for them. I don't think I've wanted happiness and good things for a couple like this in such a long time. They just have both had so many rough knocks and deserve better and yet fate seems really against them. Fingers crossed they beat fate.

I don't know how everyone else feels about Lex, but I seriously like him. No, he's not right for Chess, but I seriously believe he is a good guy - at least when you let go of the Downside Gangster part of him. I think he loves Chess and if could let their past fade a bit, I think he would realize that she's someone he's always loved as a friend. Sex just confused things a bit. Things are about to get really crazy where he's concerned, though, and I just hope that he doesn't change for the worse. And that somehow things work out for him, Chess, and Terrible - I think they could all be friends, if it weren't for the world they live in.

Oh and can I just say how much I loved Elder Griffin in Sacrificial Magic? I mean we haven't gotten to know him all that well - but I feel like he's that father figure that Chess so desperately needs in her life. A decent man who only wants good things for her. I hope we keep seeing more of him as the series progresses.

The Story...

In Sacrificial Magic, as always, Chess gets a job from the Church that just so happens to coincide with what's going on in Downside (I have to say - I'm getting a bit tired of how these two elements always overlap - I still loved this book, but come on, let's find a new way for the two parts of her life to meet, shall we?). The job she gets from the Church is about a haunting at a Downside School, on Lex's side of town. That creates two problems - one, it's Lex's (aka not Terrible's); two - Lex's side of town has a problem with the Church. They tend to be people who believed in Ancestor Worship before the Church took over and they still cling to that a bit. Not to mention the actual ghost problem.

As always, the way that Stacia explains and describes the magic is fantastic. You can see what's happening so vividly and it gets pretty intense. Things are also really heating up between the two crime lords of Downside - Bump and Slobag. I love this aspect of the series, especially since Chess is right smack dab in the middle and I find myself (like her) caring for people on both sides. Things get seriously complicated, confusing, and intense - poor Chess has an attempt on her life (Again!) and we end up watching a massive turf war, all while a magically battle is also going down. It kept me glued until the final page!

Concluding Sentiments...

I don't know what I liked more about this book - the sexual tension between Chess and Terrible or the explosive action. Either way, it was fantastic!

This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.

[Linda]

OMG! So many things happened in this, I have no idea where to start! It was amazing, and Chess really grew in this book, although she still always needs her drugs. She made such an important choice, too, in opening up her heart and her soul for the very first time, and seeing that things could actually be the better for it.

Terrible is terribly wonderful in my opinion. He and Chess help each other, the fill the other with love and confidence that they had never had before. Hopefully, Chess will be able to trust in herself a little more as the series goes on. She DOES deserve to have someone who loves her, and she IS worthy, even outside of her work as a churchwitch.

(show spoiler)[I was really afraid she was going to break her relationship with Terrible because of all of her insecurities. Not trusting Terrible was pretty stupid, but at the same time so understandable knowing how Chess grew up.] (hide spoiler)

I can't wait to read the next book in this series! I love both Chess and Terrible. I have also come to like Lex a little more (show spoiler)[although he is really a loose cannon right now, isn't he?] (hide spoiler) and maybe Chess have actually even been able to get herself a new friend!